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NASCAR, Sprint, and Coca Cola's Sustainability and Recycling Initiatives Are Driven by Their Fans

“Before I say anything about what our team has done, credit goes to our fans who come to the to the track and to our entire industry, “said Dr. Michael Lynch, Managing Director of Green Innovation for NASCAR .

It is that kind of entrepreneurial spirit that has led to NASCAR’s Green Initiatives being the largest in all spectator sports.

Lynch has his sights set on three core pillars for NASCAR Green: Waste, Emission, and Power Generation. “We are taking the Jack Welch and GE approach, which is just good aspirational corporate strategy practice to prioritize where we focus resources on where we can be number one when it comes to this,” said Lynch. If we cannot be number one with good certainty, then we reassess.”

Mary Ann Biddiscombe, Director of Marketing for Coca-Cola Recycling, echoes a similar theme when it comes to recycling bottles and cans at the track. “We have around 600 recycling bins at each track, but our program can only be effective with the support of the NARCAR fans.” The NASCAR and Coke partnership began in 2008, and since then, more than 15 million containers have been recycled.

Another key partner in NASCAR Green is Sprint, developing “Recycle for Victory,” a wireless-recycling program. “Recycle for Victory” helps protect the environment by reducing the amount of e-waste that ends up in landfills. Since 2001, Sprint has recycled more than 48 million phones, which includes at track NASCAR fan cell phone recycling, which in turn equates to more than 2,600 metric tons of material.

In addition, NASCAR just announced a new partnership with Liberty Tire Recycling. NASCAR recycles 120,000 Goodyear race tires a year, across all three of its national touring series. Liberty Tire Recycling reclaims nearly 1.5 billion pounds of rubber for innovative, eco-friendly products by recycling 50% of all tires in the United States. NASCAR felt confident that this would be a great addition to the stable of NASCAR Green partners that make up its recycling initiative.

Reducing emissions is a crucial aspect of NASCAR Green as well. Leading the way in 2011 was NASCAR’s groundbreaking partnership with Sunoco and the American Ethanol industry. NASCAR launched its long-term bio-fuels program to reduce emissions of the fuel used in all three of its national touring series. As the Official Fuel of NASCAR since 2004, Sunoco helps to power its three national series with Sunoco Green E15 – a 98 octane unleaded fuel, specifically engineered for high-performance engines, reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 20 percent.

Nearly four million miles have been driven on Sunoco Green E15, validating the fuel qualities and environmental impact of ethanol as a viable fuel to the millions of NASCAR fans across the country.

Finally, NASCAR Green has set their sights on using more renewable energy. Pocono Raceway’s 25 acre solar facility reached the 10,000,000 kilowatt hour (kWh) mark. To put the impact on the environment into perspective, here are some metrics:

The total energy generated equals the use of more than 57,000 – 60Watt light bulbs for one year at eight hours per day and represents a savings of more than 806,000 gallons of gasoline with a carbon dioxide (CO2) offset equaling that of 179,000 trees or 294,000 Propane BBQ Grills.

At Suffolk Industrial Recovery Corp, we take pride in our commitment to sustainability, and enjoy sharing the stories of NASCAR and other companies’ sustainability efforts.

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